[f. LAPIDIFY: see -FICATION.] The action or process of converting or being converted into stone.

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1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 82. Lapidification of Substances more soft, is likewise another degree of Condensation.

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1727–52.  Chambers, Cycl., Lapidification, in chemistry, an operation whereby any substance is converted into a sort of stone.

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1774.  Projects, in Ann. Reg., 110/1. It … turned out a kind of instantaneous lapidification.

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1851.  Richardson, Geol. (1855), 31. Cesalpini … ascribing them [fossils] … to ‘the retiring of the sea and the lapidification of the soil.’

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1875.  Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. II. xviii. 426. We shall feel no surprise at the lapidification of the newly deposited sediment in this Delta.

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